Review: Japanese superstars Babymetal to release 'Metal Resistance'

A young, all-girl heavy metal/teen-pop trio from Japan, Babymetal recently released their new single "Karate," a song off their upcoming second album 'Metal Resistance.' Digital Journal listened to both.

April 1 will see the release of Metal Resistance, the sophomore effort from teenage pop/metal sensation Babymetal. The popular threesome, glowingly endorsed by Slash, will be promoting the album on their Babymetal World Tour 2016.

The group, who put out their acclaimed, self-titled debut LP in 2014 (it has since been re-released), consists of vocalists and dancers Su-Metal (17) and Yuimetal and Moametal (both 16), backed by a rocking four-piece band.

Babymetal

MSO PR

Achievements include sold-out dates at Chicago's House of Blues and New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom, various awards including Breakthrough Act at the 2015 Metal Hammer Golden Gods and Vogue Japan's Women of the Year 2015 - and in July 2015, they became the first Japanese artist to grace the cover of Metal Hammer.

All this is extremely impressive, of course, but does their second album hit the exultant heights of the first? Well if manic, yet surprisingly tuneful, opening track "Road of Resistance" is anything to go by, the answer appears to be yes. The aforementioned "Karate" is up next, the girls' voices soaring pleasantly over the top of some industrial-sized riffs.

The teens sound particularly girly on the pumping "8 GJ!," which contrasts well with an obviously very masculine 'death growl.' "From Dusk Till Dawn" takes the listener on an interesting musical journey, beginning in a suitably atmospheric manner before exploding into a climactic wall of sound.

Some of the songs that follow are a little too kooky for my liking, but the epic "No Rain, No Rainbow" manages to get things back on track - while closing number, "The One," is a fine way to bring the proceedings to an end.

As well as the jaw-dropping achievements already mentioned, Babymetal's debut album hit number one on both the Japanese album chart and Billboard's World Album Chart. If that wasn't enough, the video for their first single "Gimme Chocolate!!" has so far had over 43 million views on YouTube.

This unprecedented level of success for a Japanese act is certainly a lot to take in and shows no sign of abating. It seems that Metal Resistance will certainly do its job in ensuring that that success continues for a number of years to come. Resistance is futile!